1. Field
One or more embodiments relate to a battery pack and a method of controlling the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, as portable mobile devices, such as cellular phones, laptop computers, camcorders, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and the like, have been developed, secondary chargeable/dischargeable batteries have been briskly studied. In particular, various types of secondary batteries, such as nickel-cadmium batteries, lead batteries, nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries, lithium ion batteries, lithium polymer batteries, metal lithium batteries, air zinc batteries, and the like, have been developed. Such a secondary battery is integrated with a circuit and constitutes a battery pack, and charging and discharging operations are performed using an external terminal of the battery pack.
A general battery pack includes a battery cell and a peripheral circuit or a protection circuit including a charge/discharge circuit. The peripheral circuit is manufactured as a printed circuit board (PCB) and is combined with the battery cell. When external power is connected via an external terminal of the battery pack, the battery cell is charged with the external power supplied via the external terminal and the charge/discharge circuit, and when a load is connected to the battery cell via the external terminal, the battery cell supplies power to the load via the charge/discharge circuit and the external terminal. In this case, the charge/discharge circuit controls the charging and discharging operations of the battery cell between the external terminal and the battery cell. Generally, the battery cell is connected to other battery cells in series or in parallel to each other according to an amount of load applied.
In addition, in order to implement various battery packs, a degree of freedom of design of battery packs is to be improved, and battery cells having various capacitances are to be used.